The Braided Path / Chris Wooding

The Braided Path

including:

1. The Weavers of Saramyr
   
2. The Skein of Lament
   
3. The Ascendancy Veil
   

category: fantasy, author:

Chris Wooding

book 1, 2 and 3 of The Braided Path original copyright 2003, 04 & 05, read in October/November 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 9 out of 10

Interesting... As I considered my "opinion" I realised that each book was different -- but the three together added up to an excellent read! For the record:

• Eight out of ten for The Weavers of Saramyr
  
• Seven for The Skein of Lament
  
• Eight for The Ascendancy Veil
  

What?! Eight, seven, eight ... to give an overall score of nine?! Absolutely!

Weavers was a good fantasy yarn: Action, characters, climax, resolution. All set in an interesting world. Skein continued the story -- and expanded the world. Uh oh! Is the author simply trying to add more "excitement" by introducing new monsters? For example, when going from point A to point B, why do the heroes have to cross a demon infested swamp?!

But there was a point to the swamp -- an action which helped the heroine to grow, to develop her powers. Still, this second book has a touch of the monsters being included just to pad out an otherwise boring chapter...

Then you read the third book and it all falls into place.

Major plot threads are brought to satisfying conclusions. Major and minor confusions are explained. The significance of apparently minor actions is fitted into the whole.

Yes, the battles are violent, death count is huge, action is non-stop. On the other hand, there is a feeling that battles, deaths and actions are all essential to the plot.

I would have read and enjoyed any one of these books by itself. The second, not as much as the others. Taken as a whole, the three books make for a tightly crafted, easy to read and hard to put down, thoroughly enjoyable story. The whole is, indeed, greater than the sum of the parts!

The world is changing in Saramyr. What was commonly accepted at the start has been turned upside down -- or thrown out -- by the end. Yet the people and the civilisation will survive. There is a consistency in the world, strong enough to make me believe that the civilisation of Saramyr will be rebuilt. The same, yet different, due to the events described in these books.

And that is one of the strengths of The Braided Path: the world is so believable that I am happy to accept that Saramyr will be rebuilt. Still not perfect but with some major problems removed.

The characters, too, have depth and consistency.

There are fighters and magic users and leaders and negotiators. All play their parts, without having to play other, less logical parts. The "diplomat", for example, is not a fighter. She plays an essential -- and non-violent -- role. The magic user can fight, but not particularly well. The characters are human, with a variety of skills, but they are not super-human. (Well, yes, some are. But they are each limited in their super-human skills.)

There are goodies and baddies. Some of the goodies have their own agendas, hidden or otherwise. They support each other and betray each other. And it all seems to be so perfectly reasonable... They act in a very human fashion. Consistently inconsistent. With no"unexpected plot twists" where the author has lost the plot...

Better yet, there is obvious room for more books. One threat removed, another -- a logical follow-on from these three books -- will soon need to be countered. If Wooding has written another Saramyr trilogy -- I look forward to reading it.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.